Science fiction is once again transgressing into reality. Are we ready for it?
This finding significantly widens our understanding of what constitutes as Life, while making more plausible the possibility of extraterrestrial life. We may not have definitive proof of extraterrestrial life yet, but as our understanding of life and its precursors becomes more clearly defined, so too must our understanding of WHERE life can happen. Alien life just isn’t as shocking a concept as it used to be, is it?
So let’s ask the questions: will humanity discover proof of life on other planets? And what is the SINGLE MOST noteworthy effect such a discovery would have on humanity itself?
- Would such discovery be a crushing blow to anthropocentric systems of thought?
- Do we want to seek out and understand extraterrestrial life, or strive to insulate ourselves from it?
- Something else altogether?
Discovering Futurists.
Imagine human intelligence as the precursor to the birth and spread of a vast, cosmic intelligence.
Futurists believe this eventuality is not only possible, not merely probable, but inevitable. Human intelligence will spawn intelligent technology of unfathomable capacity that will permeate and transcend the known universe. They examine trends of technological advancement, evolution, etc. and extrapolate these trends to their farthest limits. Their idea (that we will give rise to intelligent technology that will explode into the cosmos) is rooted in these scientific musings.
Sounds more like science fiction. And it IS science fiction; it construes a vision of a nonexistent reality (the future) from scientific thinking. But in this case, it’s fiction plus a little dash of reality. It’s a scientific idea of what the present will be like if certain forces continue to develop along certain vectors.
I’m fascinated by these scientists who identify technological trends and risk sounding totally insane by projecting those trends into the future. They are scientists because they analyze data collected from reality, and they are artists who perceive reality and create a new vision from it.
Thus the futurist perspective is an awesome fusion of two forces: the scientific process and the creative process. These people are scientist-artists, and their science-art is worthy of exploration no matter which side of the hyphen you prefer. I really can’t get enough of it at the moment.
Are you a futurist? A transhumanist? Educate me!
You Are As Obsolete As Nat King Cole
This is one of Nat King Cole’s classics, Love Me As Though There Were No Tomorrow,” written by Harold Adamson and Jimmy McHugh.
Didn’t click the link? Well it’s a crooning love song and one of the Big Hits and Highlights of 1956. For many Americans who might remember the song in its heyday, I would imagine it conjures images of youth, romance, nostalgia, and maybe some fond memories.
In my mind, this song conjures memories of roaming a postapocalyptic, postnuclear Las Vegas Nevada, killing mutated lifeforms and violent people with a dizzying array of retrofuturistic weaponry.
If you don’t know what I’m referring to, you may think I’m crazy. But you see, the song features as background music in the recently launched Fallout: New Vegas. The game is part of an awesome, inventive RPG series. And by the way, a lot of other delightful singles from the same era feature prominently in the game as well.
Imagine for a moment that you are Nat King Cole, and it’s 1956, and you JUST heard “Love Me As Though There Were No Tomorrow” on the radio for the first time. Not invented yet are the personal computer, world wide web, video game, youtube, etc… you listened to the song on a radio, which is the paramount consumer technology of the time.
…and all of a sudden a time machine cosmic-bursts into your living room and a young man strides confidently forth from within and proclaims, “Mr. Nat King Cole, I am from THE FUTURE, and in THE FUTURE your music lives on to be the background music for THIS:” (video footage and totally confusing game description, even after I’ve played the game through to its completion.)
My point is this: When you think of this “artpiece” in context of its original creator and audience, it has traveled LIGHTYEARS away from its original intention and meanings. So far away, in fact, that the original creators and audience could not have imagined at all the technology by which the “artpiece” is now transmitted, nor the cultural context in which it would be applied, let alone the wild characteristics of the game.
All this, by the way, in 54 years. It takes less than your average lifespan for our creations to be used in ways totally beyond anything we can conceive of at this very moment.
Think about your life, the things you’ve experienced, created, enjoyed. Just imagine that all these things may have totally different meanings to the generation after you.
Have I convinced you that our present reality will soon be perceived in ways we cannot possibly predict at all? And not just because they will have evolving contexts, but precisely because our understanding of what is possible in the future simply isn’t adequate? That YOU, twitter-fiend, facebook addict, iphone 4 boaster, google enthusiast, every aspect of your understanding of anything of this world at this precise moment may be totally unrecognizable and vastly outdated and downright obsolete before you die?
What might that mean to you?
(Weird, right? How I just invited you to share what something means to you, having just suggested that your thoughts are already obsolete?)
What does Technological Evolution Mean To You? (sex robots, I know)
Evolution is any process of change or growth. Biological evolution has been the primary vehicle of change and growth for life in the past bajillion years. Technology, too, is subject to evolution. Technology is also a powerful driver of change and evolution. Technological evolution and biological evolution are becoming one distinct process, and after surveying developments which span both fields I think some very important and pressing questions arise.
In medicine, we have genetic engineering (altering life on a molecular level) and cyborg engineering (applying robotic science to human forms). These breakthroughs are widely publicized and debated; this tech frontier is almost ho-hum since we hear about it so often.
Slightly more interesting are the ways we are using technology to emulate the natural world. We are beginning to replicate the form and function of other species. These emergent technologies reproduce species-specific behaviors and processing, going so far as to create robotic seals for the sole purpose of comforting the humans who interact with them.
The robotic seal is a technology directed to impact human psychology, and we are producing similar and more capable technologies along those lines all the time. Remember the Furby craze? It was a cute toy, but it was also a robot that played at basic socialization and psychological function. Robotic seals and Furbies are technologies we developed to emulate biological behaviors for their psychological effects.
Technology: Emulating and enhancing the natural functions of humans. Reproducing biological function and behavior for psychological effect. Combine these two developmental horizons and the door opens for more unsettling topics, such as the introduction of technology into human sexuality.
Pornography is a technology of sexual stimulation. Sex toys are a technology of sexual pleasure (and this technology in particular has come to hilarious levels of complexity for men[NSFW] and women[NSFW]).
These two technologies, combined with the type of technological innovations described above, have led to the creation of a robot designed for sexual pleasure [NSFW]. Absolutely hilarious, creepy, and scary.
Notice how technological advancement so quickly leaps from the benign and acceptable development of prostheses to the controversial development of sex slave robots. Technology has evolved, and will continue to evolve [NSFW] according to our vision on all fronts.
How are our technological creations evolving, and if given a moment’s pause of reflection, what do we think of them? And what can we infer about how we are shaping the future?
Youtube Videos Embedded (in order of appearance):
- Prodigits: The World’s First Bionic Finger: mildly interesting bionic finger.
- HPI G-DOG Robot: a remote-controlled robot dog that emulates behaviors.
- Robot Roach: a roach robot that uses chaos theory to sense and react to stimuli.
- Paro Therapeutic Seal Robot: a baby seal robot that makes people feel good.
- Hey Furby!: A furby tells a story.
- Tenga Sex Toys: Really high-tech masturbation toys for men (NSFW ROFL).
- The Rabbit Live: A description of the Rabbit, an infinitely complex sex toy for women (NSFW ROFL).
- Robot Kiss: Humanoid robots rehearse kiss scene (SFW)
- Roxxxy Demo: This is a sex robot, and you need to see this (NSFW ROFL).
- Roxxxy Demo #3: user-requested enhancements to sex robot functionality (NSFW ROFL).
- All is full of love: A Bjork music video featuring robo-lesbians (SFW), which would constitute the pinnacle of sex technology.
- Living With Robots: 8 minute video from Honda discussing robotics: perception, development, possibilities.
